movie poster comparison

The two movies that I chose to compare are Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock this movie was made in 1954 and it starred James Stewart and Grace Kelly. The second movie is a more modern day remake of Rear Window called Disturbia. Disturbia was made in 2007 and was directed by D.J. Caruso. It starred Shia LeBeouf, David Morse and Carrie-Anne Moss.

The impression that these posters give is that something serious is going on and possibly nobody notices what the main character is noticing. In the 1954 film, the text of the title of the movie is somewhat creepy and gives the impression of suspense fullness. The poster says that Grace Kelly, the female person in the movie has more of a part in the film, whereas the female part in the 2007 remake, the poster only shows the lead character which says that the female doesn’t have as much of a role. But why is the main character noticing anything at all? In the 1954 version, Rear Window, Jeffries is a photographer that was injured while taking photos on location. So he becomes wheelchair bound and subsequently unable to leave his home. Jeffries begins watching his surroundings and starts to notice suspicious things occurring in his neighborhood. The plot to Disturbia is similar yet different. The main character, Kale, played by Shia LeBeouf is placed on house arrest after he hits his teacher in the face. He seems to be angry over the death of his father that happened the previous summer.  Kale just hangs around the house for a while then he get bored and starts spying on the neighborhood, especially his hot new next door neighbor Ashley,  played by Sarah Roemer, together they discover some pretty frightening things about their neighbor Mr. Turner, played by David Morse.

The things that are similar about these stories are that both the main characters are stuck in their homes, they both become bored and begin scoping out there surroundings, and they both discover grisly things happening in the neighborhood that they most likely wouldn’t have noticed if they weren’t trapped in their homes.

The difference between these posters is quite noticeable. Although both lead characters have binoculars in their hands. The text is different and there’s a different feel to them. In the poster for Disturbia, most of the poster is black, the text is sort of FBI looking, almost like kind of creepy in its own way. All you see is the main character, blackness and binoculars but it still draws you in because it makes you feel curious and intrigued. The 1954 version has a picture of the main and female character looking out the window of an apartment building at the suspicious goings on. This movie poster seems to say that this movie is suspenseful and interesting.

I believe that the original poster was designed to appeal to the audience by saying that this movie is kind of scary, probably very thought compelling and that you might leave the theatre with leftover popcorn. The remake movie poster says that this movie is full of surprises, even though you know what the basic plot is. The movie has a lot of modern things that the other one does not. For example, Jeffries calls his friends on his phone whereas Kale texts and such on his cell phone. While Jeffries takes pictures with his camera that he uses for work, Kale and his friends use the camera on their mobile phones.